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Teacher Recs: AP Physics teacher who adored me/Math teacher, and I quote, "well, it doesn't directly say I want to adopt you"/Spanish teacher, self studied AP Spanish with him! Said it was one of the best he's written

[ *]Extracurriculars: Marching band- 4 years. Color guard captain. NAHS- 3 years, vice president. School Lit mag- 4 years, editorial staff. other leadership and volunteering.
[ *]Awards: a couple scholastic regional gold keys and numerous other art contests. AP Scholar Award and got a fairly high PSAT score. Was also student of the month for art.
[ *]Where else were you accepted/rejected?: early decision.
[ *]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[ /list] I was wavering between expecting deferral and acceptance. I show a very strong sense of color and technical skill in my portfolio but I was concerned that I didn't display enough pure design skills or process work (which I heard they like). I also felt that my portfolio interviewer was apathetic. As for my academics, during the on campus interview my interviewer explicitly told me that I have some strong scores and statistics for my intended program- that they would be no issue to my acceptance. she essentially said that as long as cfa approved of my portfolio, I would be accepted.

Rank: School does not officially award ranks, but always within the first two in my class.

Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): None.

Subjective

Essays: Is a simple read, giving a nice insight into my bringing up. On the whole, I would say 9/10.

Teacher Recs: Got my recs from my Math and Physics teachers. Both know me very well and think highly of me, so they must have been quite good.

Counselor Rec: My Principal wrote this since we don't have a Counselor. She knows me very well since I have represented my school very often.

Supplementary Material: Submitted a portfolio of projects made by me, demonstrating my interest in Engineering.

Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): Represented my State at the Nationals in Swimming and Kayaking.

Personal

Location: India

High School Type: Private, not very big, Member of a renowned chain of High Schools.

Ethnicity: Indian

Gender: Male

Other

Extracurriculars: Worked at the School for the Blind, part of a team restoring heritage instruments, and there's quite a bit more. Feel free to PM me if you want details

Awards:National Merit Scholar, State Merit Scholar, Received an award for academic and sports excellence by the King of my region.

Where else were you accepted/rejected?: Nowhere. I dream of CMU.

Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: Haha, no bragging here. I know how I would've felt if didn't get accepted. So happy that I am though CMU is the one place where I'm getting to explore all the dimensions I want to! See you in August, everybody! And to the people who got rejected, it really isn't the end of the world. Do well at whichever school you go to, and all the best! (Sorry, I know it's a bit clich

Essays: pretty emotional and deep. I personally loved them (specifically common app). CMU one basically talked about why I feel IS is special

Teacher Recs: didn't read but math and chemistry teachers loved me.

Counselor Rec: Good, considering she actually knows me and my family

Supplementary Material: just the essay, noted above

Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): Interview with alumni

Personal

Location:NJ

High School Type: Public 1600 students

Ethnicity: White

Gender: Male

Other

Extracurriculars: Basically in every band under the sun. Our school's band program is known to be strong, as we have performed in places such as Carnegie Hall. I have also had leadership positions in some bands. I also used to umpire little league and kept score for tournaments. I regularily attend church and volunteer.

Awards: Honor Roll? lol

Where else were you accepted/rejected?: Rutgers

Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:

A year ago my friends were recieveing decisions while I was a small junior looking to repeat their success the next year. For the next 10+ months I worked as hard as possible, drastically increasing my courseload while taking almost every possible standardized test so this day would come, the day I know where I am going next year. It is amazing to see the fruition of all this work and I cannot wait to join my fellow classmates next year. Juniors browsing this forum: remember that with perseverence, anything is achieveable

Essays: Pretty good common app essay, but supplement was a bit generic, :/

Teacher Recs: One was pretty generic, but the other was more personal and insightful

Counselor Rec: No idea, we had a new counselor this year who I've never even talked to

Supplementary Material:

Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize):

Personal

Location: CA

High School Type: small/mid-sized public

Ethnicity: asian

Gender: female

Other

Extracurriculars: competitive fencing, counselor at multiple summer camps, tutored English in Taiwan, CSSSA, EIC for yearbook, 2 years in school class council, historian for HOSA, 4 years CSF, tutored students in math and science at local library, worked as an after school tutor, worked as marketing/administration assistant for local business,

Extracurriculars:
Have participated in, and won awards in, several domestic MUNs and THIMUN@Hague
Won Indian Robot Olympiad, and represented India at World Robot Olympiad.
Enthusiastic guitarist.
Created a website for raising funds for the cataclysmic Uttarakhand floods.

Hi and congratulations to those of you that got in. Can you help out a mom that is new to this? DD is a soph and very interested in CMU. These acceptances were ED right? I thought you were only allowed to apply to one school ED? Also, have any of you heard about a financial aid packet or are you all comfortable with the fact that you may need to pay for all of it? Thanks.

Yes we're all early decision, and thanks for the congratulations! You can only apply to one school ED, but if another school has non-binding early action you can apply to that too (so I applied ED to CMU and EA to MIT, for example, agreeing that if I got into both I'd attend CMU).

The thing about ED at CMU is that they'll guarantee to meet demonstrated financial need for ED kids, but not necessarily for all the RD kids. For ED kids it should be around the same cost as most other private U's since they'll be meeting full need. You can run NPC's and there's even a link somewhere to fill out where the office will you an estimate of the aid you'll get, they're pretty transparent about their process.

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